Sleep on it
by fluffy-fuzzy-ears
Summary: Aang's insomnia seems to be contagious.. Katara can't sleep so she.. listens to Aang as he let's slip something secret while he gets some rest for once. Extra night added to ep 309 KATAANG FLUFF


Katara and Aang (and Sokka) belong to Mike and Bryan. Gods bless them.

THIS FIC IS KATAANG.

ONESHOT. Don't ask for a sequel.

So I couldn't sleep. Big deal. It happens to everyone...

I sighed, rubbing my arms as the cool breeze of the night brushed up against my exposed skin. The full moon was out tonight... It was the only thing I could see, staring out from the cliff we were perched at.

The fact that I couldn't sleep tonight was ironic. Maybe I caught what Aang had been going through for for the past few nights... his stress-induced insomnia. Toph and I had spent all day putting together a huge sheep-koala bear fur bed for him, and apparently, if his soft snores were anything to go by, it had been worth the effort. He was sleeping so peacefully. He deserved it, after being awake and hallucinating for three straight days... poor guy.

Another sigh escaped my lips as I sat underneath the moon. I looked over to where Aang was lying in his cloud-bed, about ten feet away from where I was sitting. I knew it was silly to feel jealous of the guy... I had been sleeping well for the longest time but tonight I just... couldn't. Yeah, Aang's insomnia had definitely been contagious. But I wasn't really anxious or worried for the Invasion... that wasn't the reason my body was preventing me from relaxing. Then what was the reason?

Just for something to do, I got up quietly, walked over to the cloud bed and sat down on the ground next to it. Toph had earthbended the bed up a foot from ground level so I wasn't looking quite at Aang, more or less up to him. I leaned my side against the rock, resting my back and returning my gaze up to the moon. Being near Aang made me feel... more relaxed, I supposed. I could hear his soft breathing more easily. I closed my eyes, letting the rhythm of my breaths match his. Maybe I woud just... sleep... here...

I gasped and jumped when I felt something hit my cheek, eyes popping open, crashing back into reality. Had I actually almost fallen asleep? I don't know... I looked to my side without moving my head and discovered that what had hit my cheek had been... Aang's right hand. It had dropped from the side of the rock, landing near me and touching my cheek as it had swayed to a stop. I leaned up to see that he had rolled over onto his side, now facing my direction. My heart beat slowing to normal, I relaxed again, shifting an inch or so to the left and away from his hand. I didn't want to dsiturb his peacefull slumber...

I looked to my right and saw that his hand was still hanging limply over the side of the rock, dragging some fur down with it. His fingers, only those of a child, were calloused and rough looking... they had been soft when that had hit my cheek but I knew those fingers had had their unfair share of rough times. I can defiintely see why he had been in so much stress... the War was a huge burden he and the rest of us, the rest of the world, had to carry...

I shook my head, disturbing my thoughts. No. I had to relax... thinking of the War and how it could go was not helping me. I took a deep, calming breath, again matching the pace of the breathing to that of the boy's above me.

I had been worried about Aang' s constant nightmares, and how he had cried out that they had been progressively growing worse... it had made my heart grow heavy with concern. On this night hopefully he would only be visited by good dreams, the kind with... air temples and gliders and lemurs. Not fire and war and death.

I almost groaned aloud when I heard muttering coming from above me. Was he having another nightmare? I had been hoping we had solved that problem but putting the poor boy to a nice rest... I leaned up and rested my hands on the fur, putting my weight on my knees. I sincerely hoped Aang wasn't having another nightmare... he really didn't deserve that...

His face didn't look troubled though... on the contrary it looked... happy? Maybe blissful was the more appropriate word to use... I smiled, relieved at the lack of fretful behaviour. Good. No Fire Lord was visiting Aang in his sleep tonight.

Instead of moving back down to resting against the rock, and not feeling remotely tired, I remained where I was, perched over Aang's face and torso, watching him sleep. That... sounds a lot more creepy that it really was. I was just making sure that nothing bad happened to him in his sleep, that's all. I watched as different facial expressions flitted across his features, relatively mild in the throes of deep sleep.

He really did look good with his hair.. Not that it really mattered too much though. Both with and without hair suited him, but seeing the dark chestnut on his head was a nice change. I wondered how long he was going to keep it though... he had seemed really surprised when I had said I liked it just after he had stumbled onto the deck of the Fire Nation ship we had hicjacked after he had woken up.

I rested my chin in my right hand and played with a tuft of fur with my left. It was so soft... no wonder he had fallen asleep so quickly... That and not depriving your body of sleep for three days would do it. I let my gaze wander to the rest of the bed arrangement. It really was a huge set up... I felt my face flush as I imagined myself laying next to Aang, sleeping with him.

"...you..."

The faint mumbling brought my wandering attentions back to the sleeping boy next to me. He was talking in his sleep now... coherent words falling off his lips. Did I talk in my sleep? Hm... I hoped I didn't. I might have said something embarassing... and Sokka would never let it go if I had and he had been awake to listen.

I watched as Aang brought his hanging arm back to his body to join the other one as he turned onto his back. The movement forced me to lean back a little as to not interact with him as he moved. I settled back in when he stilled. He inhaled deeply through his nose, seemingly sighing in his sleep. Sokka would most likely think me really weird for spending my night just sitting here watching Aang sleep, but really, I couldn't sleep, so Sokka could stuff it. Aang was interesting in his sleep... that was all... And besides, I wandered what else his sleep fogged brain would let through to my ears? I just prayed he wouldn't turn over onto his other side... then I would have to move too.

"Don't... you... back?"

The raised inflection of his voice suggested a question but the sentence didn't really make sense to me... The words weren't fast, so I was assuming that the words that filled in the blanks were lost in sleep. Dang. I gave in to the urge to clear my throat, doing it as quietly as possible so as to not wake him up.

As if he had heard me anyways, he inclined his head closer to me, turning it to face me and stretching his neck slightly. I suddenly had the overwhelming urge to run my fingers through his short hair. I stamped on that urge.

I watched as he blew a breath out his parted lips. I blushed as I noticed how the moon hanging above made his lips glisten. I also noticed that I was leaning in closer to his head. I leaned back, catching myself and calming myself down. Silly Katara!

"Hmm... ove you..."

"What was that?" I whispered back, slightly alarmed at what had been barely hidden. My gut feeling told me that whatever he was dreaming about was trying to move his lips into the word "love" but the "l" had been lost.

He answered my soft question, even though he was still asleep (I hoped). "I... love you," he breathed, turning his head back towards the sky.

My heart beat was too loud... it would wake him up. He... could he be referring to... who was he telling he loved? Again, my gut feeling made me want to believe it was... well, me, but... was that impossible? Not really, now that I thought about it... I was a girl, and I did hold an intuition. But he had never told me anything out in the open... was his dream about to betray him?

And worse yet... I couldn't reply back to him...

He sighed again, his chest moving up... down. "Love... you, Kat..."

I quirked an eyebrow. "Kat..." I leaned back so that my blush wouldn't burn his skin off and my beating heart wouldn't betray me. Kat was... Katara? That wasn't a normal name for anyone we had ever come in contact with...

I sat back down to my original positing resting against the base of the bed, a warm feeling circling my heart and spreading throughout all of my limbs. A smile twitched at the corners of my mouth, breaking through. I was sad that I couldn't tell him back that I loved him at this moment... but I didn't want to wake him.

In any case, it didn't end there. It seemed that Aang wasn't done. He started to repeat the three endearing words over and over again. At first it was sweet and the sound of his voice saying them for me was music to my ears, but then I actually felt sleep tug at my body and began wondering when he would stop. It was like a torrent of "I love you"s had broken through the flood gates. With each repition though, he voice did grow promisingly softer, until we were both lullabyed into a sweet unconsciousness.

* * *

"Oh geez, sorry Katara, didn't see you there!"

I woke, groaning and shielding my eyes from the harsh morning sun. "W..what?"

Cheerful, bubbly laughter came from above me that could only belong to the one morning person among us. "I almost stepped on you!"

I looked up to see Aang's smiling face shining down at me. "Well I'm glad someone slept well.," I grumbled.

His feet landed beside me and he stretched, his arms reaching to the sky and bones cracking in his back. "Yup! I feel great! That bed you and Toph made for me was amazing! Feel free to do it again!" He gaved me a crooked grin as he extended his hand down to me, offering his assistance to get me up from the ground.

All I could was smile, memories from the night before swimming in my head as I gained height on Aang. "Haha, don't count on it, mister."

He pouted at me and my heart beat surged, my hand not leaving his. Did he remember anything from the night? What he was dreaming about? Maybe I should bring it up, I mused. Knowing him though, he would just brush it off or be too embarassed to talk if he remembered at all. Maybe later...

The "Later" came much too fast for my liking. Where had the day gone to? Today had been our last day at the Invasion rondevous point, thus our last night too. In the morning we would be heading out to face our fears. Sokka now seemed more nervous than Aang had...

The sun was setting and I was cleaning up our dinner supplies, humming quietly to myself. Too bad I couldn't watch the sunset... it really was beautiful. I scrubbed faster, almost on the last dish. Stupid Sokka and his stupid bowl.. keep me from seeing a beautiful sunset, will you!

At last, I was done. I wiped the sweat from my brow and looked to Aang. He was apparently humouring Sokka by laughing at one of his bad meat jokes... stupid insensitive brother, shoving meat jokes at Aang when the kid is a vegetarian. I walked over to the group and smiled at Aang, extending my hand to him. Now that my "later" was here, my heart was thumping in my chest and my gut was telling me to act.

"Care to join me on the cliff?" I waved my arm towards the sunset, expressing that I wanted to watch it with him.

I smiled wider as his face flamed red, his eyes quickly shifting to Sokka then back to me. His smile echoed mine as he nodded. "Sure thing!"

Sokka narrowed his eyes at the monk as I took him away, leading him to a look out point on the edge of the cliff. We both sat down next to each other, visually drinking in the beatiful colours threading through each other to create untransposable hues.

"It's so breathtaking..." he whispered beside me, his eyes glittering with the brightest of oranges and darkest of purples at the same time, a canvas. I imagined mine looked similar... the colours complimenting the watery blue.

"So, you gonna sleep well tonight, too?"

He sighed, his shoulders slumping. "Yeah... I'll try. Just... the.."

"Invasion, yeah..." I whispered, completing sentence. A moment of silence passed.

He perked up, smiling at the sky. "Well, it's like you guys said, we've been training for this for a while. It'll be fine."

I didn't mention to him that it sounded like he was trying to convince himself...

"So," I said, deciding to ease into my point. "Did you have any nightmares last night?"

"Hm," he said, looking up to the left, thinking. After a bit, he shook his head. "I don't think so! I didn't wake up screaming, so that's promising. I don't really know what I dreamed about... I don't really remember much. Haha, except for blackness. Thaaaaank Gyatso for that."

"Well that's good." Dang. This wasn't going exactly as planned... I had been hoping he would remember his dreams and then I could dive in, his blush giving him away. My heart skipped a beat as I realiazed I had really come out here to repeat to him what he had said to me in his slumber...

I looked to him and felt my face flush as I caught him staring at me, his face mirroring mine in red. I gave a little laugh and smiled.

"You don't remember any of your dreams last night?" I asked innocently, watching his face carefully.

Before he even answered I could just TELL that he could remember and that he knew very well what I was referring to. This kid was smart.

He shifted uncomfortably, not knowing where to rest his eyes. "Well, you know, images here and there..."

I leaned in closer to him, almost pressing my body flush to his. He looked down to his lap, fidgeting with this tie. Normally he would be the determined and un-nervous one, but this time... It seemed I had caught him off guard with my advances. I tried to hold back my smirk.

I opened my mouth to say something but Aang beat me to it. "So why were you beside the bed when I woke up this morning?" He asked, his eyes holding a mischevious light to them.

It was my turn to blush. "Oh, well, I... I couldn't sleep last night, so... well, I must have caught it from you – haha – so I just..."

"Moved closer to me?" He quirked an eyebrow, the ghost of a smirk pulling at his mouth.

"Pfft, shows what you know! I just moved there to rest my back while sitting. The rock is elevated so it let me do that."

"Suuure, Katara."

Damn.

The mood grew serious again as I sighed and daringly put my head on his shoulder, effectivly startling him. The sun was almost set by now, twilight gracing the sky and letting a few glittering souls poke out around the clouds. I tried to ignore the muffled cry I heard from Sokka in the background and concentrated on how Aang's body suddenly grew stiff. I could feel the heat radiating off his face and I was sure his shoulder was getting heated from my own cheeks...

"Aang," I said lowly, "I... you were talking in your sleep last night."

Aang sucked in a breath. "Oh?"

"Mmhmm. And..."

I looked up at him, meeting his eyes with mine, the reflections of mine in his own grey ones, sparkles of golden orange glittering in the pools. I tried to breathe normally, my erratic heart beat making it quite difficult to.

"And...?" He whispered, his breath ghosting across my lips.

"I love you too..."

I stifled my disbelief that I had just said what I had by sealing his lips with my own.

The last lights of the day sunk below the horizon as we remained together. It was perfect. I tried to block out the sounds of Sokka fainting in the background... He would just have to sleep on it.


End file.
